Originally Posted by
ICUROOK
Let me put this another way. Even if the training department were run by a bunch of clowns and you got the complete shaft, in an interview setting it is always better to just admit fault and what you learned from it without making any excuses.
Some training departments are run horribly. The seat fillers may be failed checkride/upgrades themselves, and it sounds like you may have got stuck with a few. You can get sim instructors who just don't care, can't teach (i.e. never flight instructed), and are just in it for the extra pay and little work.
You could have had a combination or all of these factors work against you here. But even if it did, in your next interview just admit fault and don't make any excuses. The airlines eat that **** up. It saves them from any liability if students are forced to admit fault, and it also means they don't have to work as hard to improve their training departments.
Flight training is weird in that you're graded individually, but it really is a group project. A strong captain can help a weak FO, but vice versa is pretty much impossible, and if you have an instructor who doesn't care, you're setting yourself up for failure. My advice, in the future, is if you have a problem-captain or a problem-instructor, identify them immediately, call scheduling, call the union, and remove them from your schedule. Even on probation, most airlines can't force you to fly with a certain instructor. It's not personal, it's perfectly acceptable to ask to be graded by a fresh set of eyes. If the issue is indeed you, then multiple instructors will come to the same conclusion anyway, but if there's a single variable that is separating you from success, then it's on you to remove that variable, because once the damage is done, it can't be undone. Think of it this way, if you flew a real-world leg with a captain who made a bunch of mistakes, would you continue to fly with them? What would happen if you got violated on the next leg? Do you think the FAA would applaud your superior FO-aviating because you were basically a CFI and a mistake finally slipped through the swiss cheese model? My guess is no. Same principle applies to the sim.
It also helps to get to know as many people in ground training as possible, especially captain-upgrades. Don't be shy about asking them how to do stuff, especially if your assigned captain isn't helping you out. As long as you're asking smart questions and working hard you shouldn't have any problems finding great mentors.
Now, going forward, think of it this way, what is the next airline that hires you looking for? They probably want a trainable, safe, low drama, cog in the wheel, and even if you did get screwed as bad as you say, it's really hard to not come across as a whiner who doesn't accept responsibility, and therefore, is un-trainable and high drama. They have to interview a bunch of people and they have precious little time to get to know you, so I wouldn't spend much of that time dwelling on a negative issue, especially when you have a perfectly understandable personal reason for not succeeding. Hope your wife continues to do better, by the way.